BUSINESS

Britain will send 20,000 armed forces personnel to one of NATO's largest exercises since the Cold War, Defence Secretary Grant Shapps announced on Monday, warning of increasing threats to the Western-led alliance.

The German economy shrank slightly in 2023, official data showed Monday, as costly energy, high interest rates and cooling foreign demand took their toll on Europe's export giant.

For more than a century, Marc Bernhardt's family has been running a dairy farm in eastern Germany's Saxony region.

Asian markets were mixed Monday as traders weighed US inflation data that revived hopes for an early interest rate cut, but gains were tempered by geopolitical worries after fresh US-UK strikes on Huthi targets in Yemen.

The Panama Canal drought causes severe shipping delays from Asia to the U.S. East Coast, particularly for heavy goods. Carriers are rerouting from trans-Pacific to trans-Atlantic via the Suez Canal, with alternate routes increasing transit times by 20-30%.

China's economy likely grew at its weakest annual rate for more than three decades in 2023, data is expected to show Wednesday, as it was battered by a crippling property crisis, sluggish consumption and global uncertainties.

The world's wealthiest five men have more than doubled their fortune since 2020, the charity Oxfam said on Monday, as it called on nations to resist the ultra-rich's influence over tax policy.

The Maldivian president told India Sunday to withdraw its nearly 100 troops by March 15, a day after returning from China where he signed a raft of deals.

A volcano erupted just north of the Icelandic fishing village of Grindavik early on Sunday, just hours after local residents were evacuated, authorities said.

President-elect Lai Ching-te may have won the top job in Taiwan's elections, but he must now chart an uneasy path on the doorstep of an increasingly assertive China.

Denmark turns a page in its history on Sunday when Queen Margrethe abdicates and her son becomes King Frederik X, with more than 100,000 Danes expected to turn out for the unprecedented event.

Artificial intelligence raises serious concerns for jobs but it will also create new positions, the head of Adecco, the world's biggest temporary staffing agency, said.

When Taiwan's president-elect Lai Ching-te stepped onstage and vowed to defend the self-ruled island from China's ever-constant threat, 24-year-old Jacky breathed a sigh of relief as thousands around him erupted in thunderous cheers.

The withdrawal of UN peacekeepers from the Democratic Republic of Congo "has commenced", the foreign minister announced on Saturday, with completion due by the end of the year.

The United States carried out a fresh strike Saturday on a Huthi rebel target in Yemen, the US military said, after the Iran-backed militants warned of further attacks on ships in the Red Sea.

Nestled in the heart of historic Cairo, a cultural centre synonymous with the Egyptian capital's art scene has been razed, the latest heritage site torn down for contentious development projects.

A "pain-free" Novak Djokovic begins his Australian Open defence against a teenage qualifier on Sunday as he bids for an unprecedented 25th major crown, but women's top seed Iga Swiatek faces a much trickier assignment.

Israel pounded Gaza on Saturday as the Palestinian territory suffered under a dire humanitarian situation and grappled with a telecommunications blackout on the 99th day of the war.

As Ecuador wages war against criminal gangs, experts warn that similar security crackdowns have produced mixed results elsewhere in Latin America -- and sometimes even led to worse violence.

Workers were just starting construction on a new apartment complex in northeastern Brazil when they began finding human bones and pottery shards, their edges worn smooth by time.

Is it the little spaceship that could?

US and British strikes on rebel-held Yemen on Friday marked a sharp escalation after weeks of attacks on Red Sea shipping by the Iran-backed Huthi insurgents.

Among the more than 3,500 booths at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, only a few focus exclusively on women's health, including a cervical cancer screening device and a wristband to anticipate hot flushes.

Large US banks reported mixed results Friday, dented by exceptional costs connected to job cuts and to replenishing a federal fund tapped during last year's crisis involving midsized lenders.

Delta Air Lines saw its profits more than double in the fourth quarter last year, helped by strong travel demand, even as it trimmed its earnings expectations for 2024, the US carrier said Friday.

Overnight strikes in Yemen have set off alarm bells in Saudi Arabia, which craves de-escalation in its war-torn neighbour so it can focus on domestic reforms, analysts said.

Arrived Homes is a relatively new player in the real estate investment scene, offering a unique approach called "fractional ownership."

The world's political and business elites will convene in Davos next week, with wars in Gaza and Ukraine set to dominate the annual gabfest in the Swiss Alps.

Trade between China and Russia hit a record high in 2023, official data from Beijing showed on Friday, as commerce with the United States fell for the first time in four years on the back of geopolitical tensions.